Spur of the moment

My wife and I decided to run away for the day and figured a return to Raven Cliff was in order. Trip out was fine, we had everything under control. First breakfast. We hit the drive through at the Mrs Winners to get a biscuit to go and sat ignored at the speaker. No problem- they don't want my business I don't need them. Dunkin Donuts took care of us with some fine toasted bagels with sausage and egg. Finally made it to the parking area for the trailhead and find the bathrooms had been closed. No good! What are we paying the government for if not things like keeping the bathrooms open on state lands? We jogged back to nearby Duke Creek Falls and find that park closed altogether for construction. Argh! So we had to backtrack and go into Helen to find a bathroom. We got to a Wendys restaurant about noon where the line at the register was backed up to the door. We traded spots in line to hit the can and got a small lunch to go. Find they didn't give us the right sandwich, our advantage- this thing was twice the size of what we ordered.
We finally got back to the trailhead and got on with the hike. We took a nice slow pace and shot a few here and there. Finally got to the area I wanted and set up my shot. Grafmatic in, took one frame, advanced, another shot with back rotated, this time the grafmatic jams tight and refuses to shut. In my efforts to close it and getting more pissed I manage to crush the septum, break the handle on the darkslide and ruin the film. Much cussing and anguish! Grrr. At least I have a few more holders loaded so I set up another and took a few more frames. Even got a few more on the way out in another area. At least the trip was not a total waste.
Sure is annoying when someone or something just won't do the job they were there for and screws up your plans and expectations. Being flexible is the only sure way to stay sane.

I feel your pain. Today I shot an entire roll of 220 on my Bronica ETRsi with the dark slide still in. I thought the camera wouldn't fire with the dark slide still in? At least that's the way it works with my 120 film back.

Oh well, made the best of it by trashing the film but saving the spool as a spare!

George, I don't have a 220 back for my Bronica SQ-A, but I have had a similar experience in that I shot a few frames on one of my 120 backs and then realized that the dark slide was still in! It wasn't too bad - although the light was fading fast, I could pull out the dark slide and re-shoot those frames.

We're heading out to Fall Creek Falls this weekend for some camping. Any Apuggers wandering loose in that area?

WIsh i could join you Gary. It's been a while since we had a chance to get out. Unfortunately, I get to paint my wife's office this weekend. Let's try to plan something in a few weeks out, and see if there are others we can meet up. I realy don't care where we go, just want to shoot.

Well we got back a day early, came home to torrential rains. Maybe shoulda stayed another day but the campground at Fall Creek Falls was awful. Sites are tiny and the whole area is crowded. I did find some good shots so all was not lost. Only problem about posting what I got is my computer is declaring the scanner driver is invalid data for some reason and I can't convince it otherwise, and this is using the latest driver from the Epson site. Never seen anything like it and can't find any solutions online with Epson or Microsoft.
Anyway we need to start looking at another Apug gathering around here, seems we have a few new folks around here and they are trying to hide. Can't let that go, can we?

i am up for a get together.however i need at least a 2 week lead or better as my weekends are tuesday and wensday.so i need the advance notice to change my work schedule,unless you guys are up for a midweek weekend.so lets start the planning.i am new to georgia so i dont know all the areas around here.